We have an older HP laptop running Vista Business. My wife used it for her real estate work until it became essentially unusable. It has a 70GB hard drive, Intel T2060 1.6GHz processor and only 1GB RAM. It shows to have only 24GB free space. (I cannot find where/what is using this much space. I know, that makes me sound incompetent, but it has me stumped.) I checked to see if it was compatible with Windows 7 and it is not.

I want to use it solely for Skype interviews on the TFC Podcasts. I was thinking about formatting the hard drive and either reloading Vista or Ubuntu. I never liked Vista and since it was my wife's machine, I never learned much about it. I see Skype for Linux is available. Since I don't know squat about Linux, what do you folks suggest?

If you are just trying to get the job done and not use up much time messing with it, I'd suggest running the tool recommended above and free up space. Run a registry cleaner to clean it up a bit and give it a go and see if you have any trouble with it. If so, then you can go a different route. If not, you are done.

I gota Vista Ultimate machine shortly after it came out that I used for work every day, all day. It wasn't worth it to me to reload everything. It worked, I never had problems with it and it did everything I needed. There was lots of negative stuff out there about vista but it was working for me. I ended up using that machine for several years. Now I'm on a newer machine running Win7. If all you are doing is using it for Skype, it should be just fine.

If you just want to play with Linux to see what it's like and to learn, that's a different story and go for it.

It's significantly better after using a registry cleaner, but still far from reliable. I may upgrade to 4GB of RAM even though it will on recognize 3GB. I was surprised to find that a Crucial 250GM SSD is compatible. It's available for only $99 and it would increase storage by 350%. I may go that route since I could have a dedicated Skype computer for about $135.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:It's significantly better after using a registry cleaner, but still far from reliable. I may upgrade to 4GB of RAM even though it will on recognize 3GB. I was surprised to find that a Crucial 250GM SSD is compatible. It's available for only $99 and it would increase storage by 350%. I may go that route since I could have a dedicated Skype computer for about $135.

Chas.

I missed in your original message that this machine only has 1 gig of ram. When I said I had no issues with vista, I had 8 gig of ram. I would think you would need at least 4 gig. I think I would be uncomfortable with less than that. With the single purpose of running Skype, I guess you could just test with that. I'd make sure to go through and make sure nothing else is automatically starting up at bootup time as well.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:It's significantly better after using a registry cleaner, but still far from reliable. I may upgrade to 4GB of RAM even though it will on recognize 3GB. I was surprised to find that a Crucial 250GM SSD is compatible. It's available for only $99 and it would increase storage by 350%. I may go that route since I could have a dedicated Skype computer for about $135.

Chas.

I missed in your original message that this machine only has 1 gig of ram. When I said I had no issues with vista, I had 8 gig of ram. I would think you would need at least 4 gig. I think I would be uncomfortable with less than that. With the single purpose of running Skype, I guess you could just test with that. I'd make sure to go through and make sure nothing else is automatically starting up at bootup time as well.

I wish I could get much more RAM, but the early dv6000 series laptops won't recognize more than 2GB with PC2-6400S (666) memory. By flashing the bios and using PC2- 5300 (667) memory, it will recognize 3GB. I've flashed the bios to the latest (2010) and I'm going to get the memory. I'm just concerned that having the hard drive with less than 35% available storage, I'm still going to have a problem. Heck, I've wanted to play with an SSD anyway.

I really don't think having less than 35% will be a big issue for just Skype use. Just a guess and you can certainly experiment with it, you are not locked in. my guess is you can probably still get that space down a bit. maybe some applications that can be deleted or something. You might be able to reduce the swap space a little too however with low memory, more swap may be needed. just depends on how big it is now.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:It's significantly better after using a registry cleaner, but still far from reliable. I may upgrade to 4GB of RAM even though it will on recognize 3GB. I was surprised to find that a Crucial 250GM SSD is compatible. It's available for only $99 and it would increase storage by 350%. I may go that route since I could have a dedicated Skype computer for about $135.

Chas.

I missed in your original message that this machine only has 1 gig of ram. When I said I had no issues with vista, I had 8 gig of ram. I would think you would need at least 4 gig. I think I would be uncomfortable with less than that. With the single purpose of running Skype, I guess you could just test with that. I'd make sure to go through and make sure nothing else is automatically starting up at bootup time as well.

I wish I could get much more RAM, but the early dv6000 series laptops won't recognize more than 2GB with PC2-6400S (666) memory. By flashing the bios and using PC2- 5300 (667) memory, it will recognize 3GB. I've flashed the bios to the latest (2010) and I'm going to get the memory. I'm just concerned that having the hard drive with less than 35% available storage, I'm still going to have a problem. Heck, I've wanted to play with an SSD anyway.

Ubuntu is not compatible with as many devices as Windows is, so it might be that your particular webcam won't work with Ubuntu but will work with Windows. This is not a big problem. You can easily find a webcam that will work with Ubuntu. This will probably be the only issue you might have as far as using Skype on Ubuntu goes.

When you do a Ubuntu install, be sure you are connected to the internet before you start the install. This will help to insure that all the drivers you need for your particular computer will be downloaded and enabled during the install. If you are not connected to the internet during the install, it can be difficult to later determine which driver you need and how to install and enable it. This is particularly true, at least for my computer, when it comes to the wireless internet card built in to my computer.

I installed Ubuntu one time without being connected to the internet. After the installation completed, the wireless internet did not work. I connected the computer to the internet with an Ethernet cable and searched on the internet for a solution to the problem. I found out that I needed to install a driver for the wireless internet card. I was able to download and install the driver, but enabling the driver was difficult. I could not find any instructions that were very helpful, but somehow I was able to enable it. Shortly after the install, I decided to upgrade to a SSD, so I had to install Ubuntu again. This time I connected to the internet before the installation started using the Ethernet cable. The installation went smooth, and the wireless internet card worked when the installation was complete.

Last edited by tbryanh on Sat Jan 30, 2016 10:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

We used to use Skype a lot to see and talk to the grandkids out of state. Our daughter suggested getting an iPad and using the app called Facetime. I ordered a refurbished iPad from Apple (with a 1 year warranty) and we have truly enjoyed it. Facetime does seem to work better than Skype, and with the huge number of people with iOS Apple-based devices (tablets, PCs, laptops, phones) an iPad with Facetime might be a consideration.
Vista finally evolved into Windows 7. If you want to move to a more up-to-date PC, but do not want to move into the Windows 8 or 10 zone, you can get a warrantied refurbished PC with Windows 7, bigger hard drive and more RAM without spending a fortune. You can even get them from a Dell certified refurbisher that will provide a 1 year warranty. If you could use Vista you will like Windows 7. Windows 7 is better and easy to use.